Armed children for Chavez in Venezuela?

— Photographs of young children brandishing assault rifles in front of a mural of an armed Jesus Christ taken in a Caracas barrio have caused outrage in Venezuela.

The pictures appear to have been taken in the 23 de enero barrio, a Chávez stronghold in the west of the capital city. With their faces covered in revolutionary scarves, three children all aged under ten sit with the weapons, while a woman looks on.

The Facebook group where the pictures originally appeared is run by La Piedrita, a so-called collective, one of a number of militias based in the slums alleged by critics to be armed by the Venezuelan government.

another wider angle shot showing the children in front of Jesus Christ holding an assault weapon.